"Sharing The Magic of Writing With ~ Words On Words"

Menu

Today’s Word: Letting Go

I’d be the first to admit that I’m a worrier who anguishes over small things to the point that it interferes with my sleep and my health. Again and again, I remind myself that “this” is what it is, I can’t change it, and I need to quit reframing it and endlessly trying to get to a different outcome.

Alas, I’m preaching to the ‘choir’ when I do this. I know that I can’t make a dent in the problem but I can seldom segue from acknowledging that reality to being able to actually let it go. Whether the question is enormous, like what is this world coming to, or simply looms large on my personal radar screen, like why do I have to watch out for all those careless drivers every time I go to the grocery store, I obsess. ‘It’s not fair!’ or some permutation of that thought is my usual mental response and I chew on it endlessly.

As an antidote to all this obsessing, I’ve decided to learn to take deep breaths, focus on improving my own thoughts and actions to the extent I can, and letting the rest go. Well, I’ve decided that. Now I only have to put it into practice and hold onto the practice until it becomes second nature. We’ll see how well it works.

Until Next Time!

Ellie Pulikonda, Writer/Author

Share this:

Like this:

Today’s word: Do it!

.

.

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to write. I loved books and reading as a child and felt the compulsion to write my own stories. So I did. I wrote short tales of fantastic proportions that almost always ended with “..and they lived happily ever after.” I wrote diaries that contrasted sharply with my own reality and became my comfort zone.

I also read everything I could get in my eager little hands. And from those stories. I morphed the plot into an exposition of my own fantasy life. Diaries, notebooks, scraps of paper, almost anything that could serve to hold the tales I held in my mind was put to use and became my very own library.

Then I grew up and marriage, children, an adult career, and life itself crowded out the time for writing.

.
.

Now here I am at the other side of life with the time to do whatever I desire. And I desired to learning to write again. What an amazing transformation that has been for me. I’m feeling emotions I haven’t felt in decades: the pure joy of indulging my love of writing.

Quality doesn’t come into it at this late stage, just as it didn’t matter when I was a child. The pure joy of creating people, situations, events, joy, sorrow, awakenings, failures and so many, many possibilities is just that: pure joy!

How often do we deny ourselves the great pleasure of doing something we’ve always wanted to do because we think it’s too late?

It truly is never too late! If you have something you’ve always wanted to do? Do it! You’ll be so glad you did.

Writer and Author, Ellie Pulikonda

.

.

About The Author:

Author, Ellie Pulikonda’s shocking debut novel, “Split Second” had readers and Amazon reviewers asking for more novels by this prolific writer of psychological thriller mystery. She listened and has now released her second novel titled; “Finding Faith.”

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Ellie attended several colleges after high school to obtain her BA in Education, MA in Library Science, and her MS in Adult Education. She is or has been a daughter, wife, mother, widow, partner, single mom, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

She has worked various jobs and in different fields such as a law office, a librarian, newspaper article writing, a welfare office, and finally as the director of a public library in Tipton, IN.

“I write for the pure joy of writing” . . .

“At first, it was diaries, journals, and musings; then I graduated to short newspaper articles, some unpublished but staged mystery/comedy plays, scripts for amateur musical productions and now books. My hope is that my readers will enjoy my books and also be prodded to think about the actions and motives of my characters, to question their choices and why they made them, and to see the characters with greater insight.”

When you read, you are listening in on someone else’s thoughts. This is especially true of non-fiction, where the author’s reason for writing is to impart some ‘truth.’ But it is also true of most fiction and especially true of great fiction. The author’s ultimate aim is to share a belief with you, the reader.

.

The author presents his own take on ‘truth’ through the unique and clever use of words, and you, the reader, are free to agree or take exception to it. Still, just presenting that truth, those new slants, some differing ideology, or certain closely held beliefs may be the genius that gives the finished work its influence. That could lead to the author’s desired outcome of convincing readers of a given position. At the very least it likely makes them stop and think.

.
.

This is, I believe, the reason we are drawn to books and short stories, works of fiction. They impart the author’s ‘truth’ in an entertaining way and we derive pleasure in exploring that truth. Even if, in the end, we do not fully agree with the premise, I suspect it serves to make us ponder and, perhaps, even alter our own closely held ideas, however slightly.

Literature is almost always presented as entertainment and we are free to agree or disagree with any ‘message’ it contains. But even if we disagree, the work itself still challenges us to examine our own cherished beliefs and that challenge may result in either altering the belief or in holding to it more tightly.

A magazine recently had on its cover “Say yes to saying no. It’s a clever way to make you think about how often we say “yes” when our gut is shouting at us to say “no.”

Why is it so hard to say no? “Oh, would you be a dear and chair the next meeting?” Everything in you is shouting “no” but some twist of our thinking has us saying “oh, sure, I’d be glad to do that.

Is it because we really do want to be considered a dear or a lifesaver or a go-to person that someone can use that to flip our switch? Think about it. By hooking the “Be a dear” up with the request, your refusal amounts so announcing to that person that you are not “dear.”

There have been campaigns in recent years to embed in our minds the phrase “Just say no” to problems like drugs and alcohol abuse. Most of us have no trouble saying no to such things but still cave in when asked to be on a board or chair a committee even when we feel it’s not a good fit for us.

.

.

And sometimes when we dare to say ‘no’, we are met with latent hostility that shakes our sense of self-worth. Cajoling, pleading, harassing, anger, and many other reactions to our ‘no’ are quite simply another form of manipulating us into saying yes.

It takes determination to over-rule the guilt trip and just say no, but unless we do say it and make it stick, we become easy targets to future requests. Then we can be eased into situations that take up more time than we care to spend and bring us no return, not even the thought that we did the right thing. Things that we agree to under stress often bring us only frustration and anger.

.

So prepare for the next time. Practice saying “no” without adding an apology, any excuse or even an explanation.

I think I hate technology. I just get comfortable with the status quo and wham: someone sets about to change it. They don’t even have the patience to give us the time to finish reading the directions on the current iteration before they’re declaring it obsolete, out of date, old school, yesterday’s news. They just push us on to new apps and back to square one.

Now I realize that all these agents of change are decades younger than I am. But I’m convinced they are just youngsters whose brain cells haven’t even had a chance to settle in firmly, let alone coalesce to some kind of seasoned reasoning.

You see, while they were attending nursery school and learning to tie their shoes, we were doing quite well coping with life as we knew it. We adjusted to telephones, then television, and finally portable radios. We were doing all right. Now the applecart has been firmly upset and I feel as if I’m under the rubble.

They’ve suddenly mastered shoe strings and have taken over everything from that on , making life difficult for those of us who can’t seem to work our way through computers, I-phones, E Tablets, and various other technical gadgets, and we’re not even talking about drones and computers that can build bridges.

.

When I was young I couldn’t understand how my grandparents could be such old fogies. I certainly understand that now. Now I long for the days when the latest technology was a phone you could dial the number you wanted on your own.

When I finish writing a book, I question myself. Do I really want to start working on the next plot that I have in mind? Writing is such hard work. Finding just the right word at any given sentence is nearly impossible. Carrying the thread of the story carefully through each paragraph, page and chapter is so frustrating. Shepherding the process through editing, publishing, and promoting produces so much anxiety and takes way too much time …. Why would anyone willingly subject themselves to this misery?

I can only speak for myself, of course, but the simple answer is that I can’t stop myself. The ideas, sentences, even paragraphs just pop into my brain and until I set them down on paper, they will not let me be. When I’m reading someone else’s book, so engrossed in the story line and eager to see how the situation is resolved, suddenly there is a burst of inspiration on the book I’m currently writing and it will not let me go.

Sometimes when I’m talking with someone about a book they’re reading and they say something that triggers a direct zing to the sentence I got hung up on in my own novel, I ignore that at my peril. Often when I’m watching a beautiful sunset or a particularly enchanting scene, I suddenly am overwhelmed with descriptive phrases that I must write down to be used in a future novel.

.

.

Add to that the ever-present idea that maybe this isn’t the great American novel, after all, and maybe not many copies will sell or be read, and maybe I’m only a leaf falling in the forest that makes no impression anyone. How in the world does anyone ever sit in front of a computer and write? It makes no sense whatsoever.

So, of course, I’m working on my next book, even as I pass through all this angst. I sleep, wake, eat, dream, pace, contemplate, write, re-write, delete words, delete phrases and sentences and paragraphs and even whole chapters, It will not let me go.

So, I’ve come to the conclusion that writing is cheaper than psychiatric appointments, more fulfilling that banging my head against the wall, easier on my health than binge drinking or eating, and relatively harmless for those around me. I am a writer and nothing, not even frustration, mediocre sales, and a critic panning my work can NOT change that.

.

.

And every now and then I get a favorable response to my book. One reader told me she couldn’t put it down, another that she was moved to tears over the plight of the characters, another that she looked forward to getting back to the story each time.
Aaah!!

(Note: This week’s blog was written by my daughter, Lori Rogers, who shares my love of books and reading.)

Books have always been a part of my life. I almost always have at least one book with me everywhere I go and now, thanks to the e-readers, I can take a whole library with me. I may be alone but I never feel lonely when I am reading. I love stories, being caught up within them, wondering if I can guess how they will end or even what happens next, and even rewriting my favorite parts in my head to see if that changes the experience.

If I am somewhere that I can’t read (for safety or PC reasons) I ‘write’ my own stories or revisit in memory books I’ve already read. Books make up some of my earliest and longest friendships. I don’t mind reading a favorite book two, three, or even four times. Perhaps the friendship is actually with the author; I eagerly jump into a new book by a favorite author.

.

The book is new but the author’s thoughts and take on life are familiar. Like my mother’s new book titled; “Finding Faith” In this sense reading is actually sharing someone else’s thoughts and ideas, traveling with them to a new dimension and a deeper friendship. I don’t mind traveling back from that dimension because I can always slip back into it just by picking up the book again. Really!

Now excuse me, I hear her book calling ME.

Thanks All! ~ Lori Rogers

< < < >

About Ellie Pulikonda, Author/Writer

Author, Ellie Pulikonda’s shocking debut novel, “Split Second” had readers and Amazon reviewers asking for more novels by this prolific writer of psychological thriller mystery. She listened and has now released her second novel titled; “Finding Faith.”

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Ellie attended several colleges after high school to obtain her BA in Education, MA in Library Science, and her MS in Adult Education. She is or has been a daughter, wife, mother, widow, partner, single mom, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

She has worked various jobs and in different fields such as a law office, a librarian, newspaper article writing, a welfare office, and finally as the director of a public library in Tipton, IN.